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Thursday, March 3, 2011

STAMFORD, Conn., Mar 03, 2011 -- WWE’s Monday Night Raw® on USA Network and Friday Night SmackDown® on Syfy ruled cable as the most watched programs on their respective nights. The strong viewership is building towards WWE’s biggest event of the year, WrestleMania® XXVII, which will feature the most electrifying host in entertainment, The Rock®.

With 3.55 million viewers this past Friday, SmackDown was the most watched program on Syfy since August 2008. The show beat well-known shows Phineas and Ferb (Disney Channel), The O’Reilly Factor (FOX News Channel) and the NBA regular season games (ESPN) as the most watched that night.

Monday Night Raw’s 5.6 million viewers beat American Pickers, Pawn Stars (History Channel), and both college basketball regular season games (ESPN). It was watched by more viewers than Chuck and The Cape (NBC), as well as every program on CW.

Monday Night Raw ratings highlights include:

* Most watched program on all television (broadcast and cable) among males under 55, including 18-49 and 25-54.

* Most adults 18-34 and 18-49 on all of cable and every program on NBC and CW.

* More adults 25-54 on all of cable and every program on CW.

Friday Night SmackDown ratings highlights include:

* Most watched television program (broadcast and cable) among all males (M2+) than every program on NBC, FOX, ABC, CW and all of cable.

* Most watched television program (broadcast and cable) among all adults 18-49 and 25-54.

* Watched by more than 1.2 million female viewers, beating all programming on CW, TLC, A&E, Food Network, Lifetime, Hallmark and Oxygen.

Additional information on WWE (NYSE: WWE) can be found at wwe.com and corporate.wwe.com. For information on our global activities, go to www.wwe.com/worldwide/.

About WWE

WWE, a publicly traded company (NYSE: WWE), is an integrated media organization and recognized leader in global entertainment. The company consists of a portfolio of businesses that create and deliver original content 52 weeks a year to a global audience. WWE is committed to family-friendly, PG content across all of its platforms including television programming, pay-per-view, digital media and publishing. WWE programming is broadcast in more than 145 countries and 30 languages and reaches more than 500 million homes worldwide. The company is headquartered in Stamford, Conn., with offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo.

Additional information on WWE (NYSE: WWE) can be found at wwe.com and corporate.wwe.com. For information on our global activities, go to http://www.wwe.com/worldwide/.

Trademarks: All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, trademarks, copyrights and logos are the exclusive property of WWE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners.

Forward-Looking Statements: This news release contains forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, risks relating to maintaining and renewing key agreements, including television distribution agreements; the need for continually developing creative and entertaining programming; the continued importance of key performers and the services of Vincent McMahon; the conditions of the markets in which we compete; acceptance of the Company's brands, media and merchandise within those markets; uncertainties relating to regulatory and litigation matters; risks resulting from the highly competitive nature of our markets; the importance of protecting our intellectual property and complying with the intellectual property rights of others; risks associated with producing live events both domestically and internationally; uncertainties associated with international markets; risks relating to our film business and any new business initiative which we may undertake; risks relating to the large number of shares of common stock controlled by members of the McMahon family; and other risks and factors set forth from time to time in Company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results could differ materially from those currently expected or anticipated. In addition, our dividend is significant and is dependent on a number of factors, including, among other things, our liquidity and historical and projected cash flow, strategic plan (including alternative uses of capital), our financial results and condition, contractual and legal restrictions on the payment of dividends, general economic and competitive conditions and such other factors as our Board of Directors may consider relevant, including a waiver by the McMahon family of a portion of the dividends.